Would A Change at the Top Benefit the White Sox

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

I think the Sox should trade Fields and Broadway for Roberts and suck up the cash and work a deal with Crede. Then move Quintin to the two spot and bat Cabrerra 9th until he shows he is the hitter he has been and hit Swisher 3rd. The inconsistency of the middle of this order has been there for two years and I am not certain it will magically reappear. There are way to many at-bats simply given away every night by many hitters in the line-up.

Its pretty obvious to everyone in the Sox org. that Crede will be a free agent. Thats what Boras does with his clients. I've seen " trade Fields" so may times its ridiculous. I'm not even that high on the guy. He's K-ing at an alarming rate in the minors and avg at best defensively but we will need him next year .

Edited May 1, 2008 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[witesoxfan]

Its pretty obvious to everyone in the Sox org. that Crede will be a free agent. Thats what Boras does with his clients. I've seen " trade Fields" so may times its ridiculous. I'm not even that high on the guy. He's K-ing at an alarming rate in the minors and avg at best defenslessly but we will need him next year .

 

I seem to recall arguing with you about this in the offseason. It's good to see we agree on the future of 3B at the very least.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

I seem to recall arguing with you about this in the offseason. It's good to see we agree on the future of 3B at the very least.

Hmmm I don't recall that but it's been so long since the search function worked that I can't even look it up. We agree more than you would think. You're a knowledgeable guy and passionate about the Sox .

[iamshack]

Well, we don't "need" Fields next year simply because he will be inexpensive. Between Danks/Floyd/Quentin/Swisher we have 4 players who will make about $6.5-7 million total in 09'. Even if you assume that Buehrle/Vaz/Contreras will still be here, along with Pauly, Thome, Dye AND Crede, AND the bullpen, there is still enough money there. All you have to do is plug in Ramirez/Uribe/Richar at one of the MI positions, and a player you could theoretically acquire for Fields via trade, and the payroll could still work as it does this year.

 

Fields is a nice asset. But it is not absolutely necessary that he be here, especially if you deal him for a similarly-salaried player who fills a need.

[witesoxfan]

Well, we don't "need" Fields next year simply because he will be inexpensive. Between Danks/Floyd/Quentin/Swisher we have 4 players who will make about $6.5-7 million total in 09'. Even if you assume that Buehrle/Vaz/Contreras will still be here, along with Pauly, Thome, Dye AND Crede, AND the bullpen, there is still enough money there. All you have to do is plug in Ramirez/Uribe/Richar at one of the MI positions, and a player you could theoretically acquire for Fields via trade, and the payroll could still work as it does this year.

 

Fields is a nice asset. But it is not absolutely necessary that he be here, especially if you deal him for a similarly-salaried player who fills a need.

 

I'd much rather deal Richar than Fields. Average 2Bman can generally be found all over the place and it's even possible that Richar could be dealt for a 2Bman. I'd much rather include Richar in a deal for Roberts and have his contract over the next like 2 years than to have Crede locked up for 5 with no idea whether his back will hold up nor having any idea whether Richar will be a good player. Fields has already proven that he has a ton of power and if he can start to make a bit better contact, he'll become a huge threat in the middle of the order, and Roberts has proven to be a pretty consistent player over the past few years. I'd prefer that much moreso than dealing Fields.

 

That being said, Fields is tradeable...it should be for nothing less than either a rising star or a very, very good MLB player already with a few years left on his tires. Anything else really hurts badly.

[iamshack]

I'd much rather deal Richar than Fields. Average 2Bman can generally be found all over the place and it's even possible that Richar could be dealt for a 2Bman. I'd much rather include Richar in a deal for Roberts and have his contract over the next like 2 years than to have Crede locked up for 5 with no idea whether his back will hold up nor having any idea whether Richar will be a good player. Fields has already proven that he has a ton of power and if he can start to make a bit better contact, he'll become a huge threat in the middle of the order, and Roberts has proven to be a pretty consistent player over the past few years. I'd prefer that much moreso than dealing Fields.

 

That being said, Fields is tradeable...it should be for nothing less than either a rising star or a very, very good MLB player already with a few years left on his tires. Anything else really hurts badly.

 

The only problem with that being that Richar has little trade value right now.

 

I have no problem with keeping Fields, but I'd be very happy to listen if we could deal him for a top 2b or ss prospect. Only problem there is, those seem to be few and far between right now...

[Balta1701]

The only problem with that being that Richar has little trade value right now.

 

I have no problem with keeping Fields, but I'd be very happy to listen if we could deal him for a top 2b or ss prospect. Only problem there is, those seem to be few and far between right now...

Then let's let Richar and Ramirez develop and find out what we have this year and next.

[iamshack]

Then let's let Richar and Ramirez develop and find out what we have this year and next.

 

Absolutely. The question becomes do you use Fields as trade bait to acquire a 2b that can leadoff....

[Balta1701]

Absolutely. The question becomes do you use Fields as trade bait to acquire a 2b that can leadoff....

Until Joe Crede is resigned...absolutely not. Not with the Boras factor.

 

With Boras involved, it's always possible the Sox could make him a dynamite offer, more money than Konerko got, etc., and then Joe would muddle around for a few days until some other team came in and offered him Torii Hunter money and suddenly we'd be left with, I dunno, Bourgeois or Ozuna as our #1 3b next year.

[Dick Allen]

Until Joe Crede is resigned...absolutely not. Not with the Boras factor.

 

With Boras involved, it's always possible the Sox could make him a dynamite offer, more money than Konerko got, etc., and then Joe would muddle around for a few days until some other team came in and offered him Torii Hunter money and suddenly we'd be left with, I dunno, Bourgeois or Ozuna as our #1 3b next year.

If the Sox dealt Fields and Crede left, why is it out of the question that KW could pick up a 3rd baseman through a trade or some other way? Why would he be stuck with what is already in the organization?

[Balta1701]

If the Sox dealt Fields and Crede left, why is it out of the question that KW could pick up a 3rd baseman through a trade or some other way? Why would he be stuck with what is already in the organization?

Presumably he wouldn't want to be stuck that way. But here's the issue in response...after KW's rebuilding efforts this year, how many bullets does KW have left that he could fire off in a trade for a 3rd baseman? In terms of players people want who he could move this offseason, you basically have Poreda. Broadway, McCullough, Owens, Haeger, etc., aren't really likely to net us a starting MLB 3rd baseman, are they? And frankly, after Joe, the pickings are pretty slim at 3rd base this offseason in the FA market. (Stole this from another site, probably some errors on it but it's the best I found on the Google)

 

Casey Blake, CLE

Russ Branyan, STL

Jeff Cirillo, ARI

Joe Crede, CWS

Morgan Ensberg, SD

Pedro Feliz, SF

Nomar Garciaparra, LAD

Shea Hillenbrand, LAD

Corey Koskie, MIL

Greg Norton, TB

Abraham Nunez, PHI

 

Options:

*Scott Spiezio, STL

*Wes Helms, PHI

*Chipper Jones, ATL

*Hank Blalock, TEX

 

The only guys on that list who even have more than 50 at bats this year, let alone performance (and hence isn't just a bench guy) are Casey Blake and Pedro Feliz, and so far their OPS's are under 680. If there's others missing then I hope someone fills in who else is out there. But basically, the option if we trade fields becomes trading Poreda (or some other A-ball player who steps up this year) or picking someone off of that list.

[Lemon_44]

Until Joe Crede is resigned...absolutely not. Not with the Boras factor.

 

With Boras involved, it's always possible the Sox could make him a dynamite offer, more money than Konerko got, etc., and then Joe would muddle around for a few days until some other team came in and offered him Torii Hunter money and suddenly we'd be left with, I dunno, Bourgeois or Ozuna as our #1 3b next year.

I agree 100%. You can't trade Fields until Crede is signed. Especailly if you're talking about in a deal for Roberts. Roberts would be nice for this year but not at the expense of Fields. Now ,if you could get Roberts for BA and a pitching prospect, then i'd do it. BUt B'more isn't going to go for any deal like that.

[witesoxfan]

Absolutely. The question becomes do you use Fields as trade bait to acquire a 2b that can leadoff....

 

So, just curious, who would be the option? Because you assuredly aren't speaking of Brian Roberts.

[lostfan]

I agree 100%. You can't trade Fields until Crede is signed. Especailly if you're talking about in a deal for Roberts. Roberts would be nice for this year but not at the expense of Fields. Now ,if you could get Roberts for BA and a pitching prospect, then i'd do it. BUt B'more isn't going to go for any deal like that.

Right... they would go for a SS, maybe they'd think about using Fields as a DH or something, but they have absolutely zero use for an outfielder. Obviously Markakis is now the franchise player, Luke Scott is legit, and Adam Jones is a future All-Star.

[almagest]

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm "up in arms" about the offense like the "trade Thome, force Dye to waive his NTC and trade him, DFA Konerko and call up Fields" crowd is but I'm definitely worried about the fact that the offense seems to completely disappear every couple of games, and the team struggles badly against certain types of pitchers. I just don't feel comfortable about that. On the other hand, they are prone to light up the rest of the types of pitchers at any given time.

Every team struggles against certain types of pitchers. Every team has slumps. I, too, have reservations, but it's really not worth getting too upset about, since unless we get hit with a rash of injuries I seriously doubt our regulars will hit close to the mendoza line this year. Their career lines indicate that all will get very hot at some point this year, and that will be when the offense really starts taking off.

 

The Cubs have, by most definitions, a solid offense. They scored 19 runs last night, and managed 3 tonight. They were shut down by a cruddy Nationals team. The Tigers didn't hit AT ALL at the beginning of the year. The Yankees and Red Sox have bad stretches. The Diamondbacks were shut down a few times this year. Brewers as well.

 

Actually the Sox are 9-10 since they won 5 in a row.

So they're not supposed to have stretches where they play ~.500 ball? They're 14-10 over that 24 game stretch. I'll take that anytime.